28 December (Part 2) - Horrible Histories. Death by a thousand cuts
Maybe I am wrong and Bexley Council is improving some things. As far as i know it is quite
a long time since they were directly involved in the death of a resident.
In 2014 I was invited to meet a former Bexley Council employee who wanted to
tell me - and did - how the Council Leader and the Press Office were running
around like headless chickens in an attempt to cover up the unfortunate death of
a lady who was left to die alone as a direct result of a stupid Council decision.
My informant had proved to be a loose cannon in the cover-up operation and been
handsomely paid off after being made to sign a non-disclosure agreement. I
advised her to pay off her mortgage and stick to her agreement. Easy for me to
do because another loose cannon had been sacked in the aftermath of the same
incident and owed Bexley Council no such loyalties.
Until about 2014 when the service was privatised Bexley Council ran its own
emergency Link Line service. Vulnerable people pay a lot of money to wear a
pendant which detects falls or button presses and alerts a Central Control
Service. To cut a long story short Bexley Council decided that it could be run
by just one person in the control room by both night and day. By day that was
not a big deal because there would always be someone else around to cover breaks but not so at night.
The staff concerned made their objections known but their safety concerns were
over-ruled. One of the men on the rota liked a drink and came into work after
several too many. The inevitable happened.
While he was sleeping it off the emergency line was unanswered and a lady died alone.
The incident was successfully covered up for a year, by the police too, before a technician who
was sacked was unable to live with his secret any more. When he walked out of
the Council Offices for the last time he took with him the computer log which proved what had happened.
This was one of the most horrific things ever reported on Bonkers and
a read of
the entire saga should easily convince everyone that Bexley Council was run by
totally incompetent people interested in only their own self-preservation
without any semblance of a moral compass.
Bexley Council is probably better than that now but the principal
cover-up merchant is still in charge.
Daily Mail’s quick summary of the case.